AMRITSAR, Punjab, India :March 27, Reuter: A newly born boy was seriously ill on Sunday after being snatched from a North Indian hospital and sold for 800 rupees (60 dollars), police said.
The boy was discovered suffering from pneumonia in a Punjab village a few hours after being spirited out of an Amritsar hospital by a woman posing as a midwife.
Three people were arrested, police said, including a village woman who had agreed to buy the child because an operation had left her unable to bear any more of her.
The obsession of many Indian couples for male children was highlighted in January when another newly born boy was switched with a girl in a Delhi hospital. He has not been seen since.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 1, 1988
